The Portal. Earth.
The Portal has always been the focus of Section X. Here, every day, personnel and equipment alike would be sent through the Portal to World Alpha. Fresh Phasewalker recruits. Food, ammo, and other supplies to replenish the depleted assets. In return, a variety of objects were brought back to Earth.
Ashes of fallen Phasewalkers. Pieces of advanced technology. Valuable individuals from World Alpha that could help with the technological leap forward of Earth. Even living and dead samples of Mutants for Section X scientists to study from.
Today, the Portal was met with some rare visitors.
Squads of elite soldiers secured the area. A few officers walked up to the Portal. One of them set down a carefully sealed container on the ground.
Behind them, Caity and General Kennedy walked up to the Portal. Caity turned to General Kennedy and saluted. The general returned the salute.
"I hope the next time we see each other, it's within five minutes."
"Likewise, sir." Caity replied before entering the Portal and reaching World Alpha.
Ever since the Portal appeared, a major part of Section X resources was devoted to studying how it worked with several goals in mind. One of such goals was finding a way to shut the Portal down.
Yes. The Phasewalkers have scored multiple victories in World Alpha and have seized several footholds in the foreign world, but who was to say they would keep on winning? Even if the entire World Alpha was conquered, what if more of these Portals popped up and tanks and rifles could no longer handle the issue?
With so much at stake, Section X had to go down multiple paths at once so when one path inevitably went wrong, they would have several more tricks up their sleeves. They had to make sure if the situation became impossible to salvage, they could pull the plug and shut the Portal down, cutting their losses.
It was a difficult process, but ultimately, the scientists were able to come up with some sort of experimental method that, according to computer simulations, could completely shut down the Portal.
Make no mistake. Whatever science that was behind the Portal was leagues and leagues away from anything Humanity now could possibly comprehend. No one had any idea how the Portals were constructed or by who. Was this simply an accident or a carefully calculated presence? No one knew.
But what Section X was able to do was identify the energy that seemed to be powering the Portal. This energy was so powerful its very presence created a fracture in the reality of both worlds and, at the exact position of where the Portal was, connect the two worlds with a safe, passable bridge that living beings and objects alike could pass through.
Since this energy opened the Portal, Section X scientists simply called this energy "Key Energy", and they have been developing a method to pull this energy out of the Portal, thereby theoretically shutting the gateway down.
This method was by no means certain or absolute. Most academics, if put in this position, would slam their fists into the table and demand that an operation this dangerous be put to a halt immediately. Section X knew nothing about Key Energy. A single mistake in how the energy was handled, a single attribute that the scientists weren't aware of, and their entire world could be wiped from existence.
In that case, it was a good thing those employed by Section X weren't most academics. They weren't even the ones making the calls. All they had to do was carry the orders out.
Even if their experiment destroyed Earth itself, they could at least perish with the comfort of knowing that they were just following orders. Orders that the higher-ups of this nation determined to be necessary to carry out.
As the extraction device was set up, General Kennedy sighed. They were playing with fire here. He knew it. Everyone knew it. But everyone has also agreed that playing with fire and risk getting burned alive was a worthy risk to take, as long as in the case that whatever disasters happen, Earth would have another chance of survival.
Another card to play and, hopefully, turn the table and save the day when all was at stake.
The general turned and nodded at one of the men, who pressed a button.
The device placed in front of the Portal was opened up, revealing a special type of alloy.
As part of the diagnosis of the Portal, the scientists realized that the component that made up the Portal, the pitch-black screen, was actually reacting to some elements. In one case, the screen seemed to be attracted by Sodium. In an attempt to abuse this attribute, scientists tried out all known chemical compounds and finally discovered a formula that, when applied at a certain spot with a certain intensity, could suck the Key Energy in.
General Kennedy remembered one of the head researchers making an analogy. That scientist described the Key Energy as similar to Thermal Energy or heat: it flowed from places with more energy to places with less energy. With the elemental compound, the scientists manually created another object with no Key Energy close to the Portal. Therefore, Key Energy would be forced to flow from the Portal to that object.
Yep. Totally normal. In a sense, Key Energy was just like water. At least that was how the scientists tried to imagine it. Were they right? No one knew.
General Kennedy and countless sentries watched in a mixture of amazement and shock as, gradually, streams of black energy seemed to have deviated from the Portal itself and started flowing toward the box on the ground. This movement was quick at first, with black Key Energy rushing straight into the box. Gradually, this movement slowed down more and more until it stopped altogether.
A soldier replaced the first box with another one of the same design, and the transition continued.
Finally, after the 12th box, the flowing stopped altogether. This wasn't a mistake. How did General Kennedy know that? Well, the Portal was no longer present. When the black energy that composed of the Portal was removed, so was the Portal itself.
Many people at the scene, officers, soldiers, and scientists alike, let out breaths they didn't know they were holding onto. And then, General Kennedy took the lead and started clapping. Soon, clappers filled the field, honoring the work and success of those who have spent countless hours working tirelessly to make this miracle happen.
Following this success, Earth was in a much more dominant position against interdimensional threats. Before this, even if the Phasewalker Corps was defeated, Earth couldn't even close the door on the invaders.
When the cheers finished, General Kennedy turned to the soldiers.
"Let's bring our Portal back."
The soldiers nodded before turning to the boxes and started inserting different elements. Different chemical compounds had differing abilities to retain Key Energy. Alter the compound formula slightly and you would have a completely different result.
Scientists deduced that after the boxes were made so they could no longer hold the Key Energy, that same Key Energy would leave the boxes and return to where the Portal was, recreating the doorway to World Alpha.
That would mark the total success of the experiment.
Except this was where things went wrong altogether. Instead of flowing back and forming the Portal, the black Key Energy just dissipated into thin air.
That was it. They were gone, along with the Portal.
And the entire Phasewalker Corps, less than 3,000 Phasewalkers, were still on the other side. In World Alpha.
The satisfied smile on General Kennedy's face disappeared without a trace as the man snapped back to the scientists on sight. Most of the researchers were in national laboratories, observing this experiment from countless leagues away, but this wasn't on General Kennedy's mind right now.
"What happened?" He demanded loudly. "Someone talk to me!"
The scientists on the scene looked at each other helplessly. In multiple top-secret national labs, researchers were put back to work. But, ultimately, no matter how many methods they tried or how many tests they did, the fact was simple.
Their little experiment has led to the collapse of the Portal. Chances were, as a result, the 3,000 Phasewalkers on the other side would never come home again.
---
When the Portal disappeared, Caity smiled. When five minutes passed and the Portal still wasn't put back in its place, she was no longer smiling. When twenty minutes later and Colonel Caity Hunter was still staring into empty space, she knew something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Time passed at the same rate in World Alpha as back on Earth.
Caity quickly gathered the entire Phasewalker High Command and explained the situation to them. They were alarmed, but not terrified.
"We knew there was a chance this would happen," Ryan said quietly, as calm as always. "We are prepared."
Indeed, the Phasewalkers were more than ready for something to go wrong in the experiment and potentially compromise the Portal. Before the experiment started, the Phasewalkers had transported enough resources into World Alpha that they had filled all the warehouses in Fortress Alpha and most of the warehouses in New Sara and Camp York. No one should be setting food on fire, but no one should be starving to death in the near future either.
The lack of reinforcements would hurt, but at this point, Phasewalkers only consisted of less than half of the 1st Phasewalker Regiment. Unless some powerful foe suddenly emerged, then everything should be just fine.
But Major Nelson of the 1st Armored brought up a much more critical issue.
"This will hurt morale." He stated. "Many of our troops are fighting for the money Section X is paying them. Either that, or their friends and families. If they will see neither that money nor their family ever again…I don't know what they will do."
"Section X may be gone, but we Commissars remain." Ryan declared simply. "Portal or not, we will do our duty."
"As honorable as always, Commissar Carlson, but just like the common soldiers, Commissars fight for a cause. That cause is protecting Earth. But if Earth is no longer in the picture, then your determination...it is at risk as well." Nelson replied.
Caity cut off Ryan's rebuttal.
"Either way, as of the moment, we are on our own." For a moment, she felt more weight on her shoulders than ever before. There was no longer the counsel of bands of professional soldiers who would jump out and stop her if she made a disastrous decision. No longer the backing of an entire world at her disposal.
There were only her, 3,000 Phasewalkers, and several more thousand local troops.
She took a deep breath and continued.
"We have to preserve our resources. Cease all exploratory missions and raids. Limit the patrol movements to conserve fuel. I want a rationing schedule on my table by tonight. Ryan, I want you to work on going to the survivors of New Sara and Camp York and collect all the weapons out there among the civilians. I didn't mind them too much before, but with the current situation, we better be the only ones armed."
The officers in the room nodded at that string of orders. These orders were decent. Through the weeks of conflict in World Alpha, Caity Hunter has become a qualified commander. Perhaps there were some details that needed to be refined, but her ideas were all good.
That was when she went onto a critical topic.
"Should we tell our Phasewalkers what happened?"
"Absolutely not!" Major Fox exclaimed. "Do it and we will have mutinies on our hands."
"I assure you, Major Fox. If there are mutinies, they will only be in your Battalion." Major Riley snickered. "Only the weak units will break the chains of command. My men may complain and question, but in the end, the 2nd Airborne will stand!"
Major Fox growled in annoyance before Major Nelson cut in.
"For once, I agree with Major Fox." He was obviously concerned. "Major Riley, I'm afraid you overestimate our resilience. Not everyone will be as determined in the face of adversity as serious as this one. There...there will be chaos, if we tell them the truth, that is."
"Then we put down the chaos!" Major Riley snapped to Ryan. "You agree with me, don't you, Regiment Commissar?"
All eyes were trained on Ryan.
The Regiment Commissar froze there for a few seconds before speaking up.
"If we tell them the truth, they will feel struck down, but they will know that we, the Phasewalker High Command, are on their side. If we hide it from them, then when they inevitably know, they will see us as traitors and enemies. If that happens, any trust between us would be gone, and the only thing we have left to maintain order is with the way of the sword."
Ryan's answer was the same one he gave to the President. Choose the brutal truth over the beautiful lie.
This was what helped Caity make up her mind.
"I will not lie to my own people, people who trusted their lives in my hands."
"We are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."